When you’re teaching a colt how to rein around, it’s important to take your time, be patient, and help him learn at his own pace. How do you teach a colt to follow his nose the right way? In this video from Ride TV coach, Miles Baker, you’ll learn how to set your colt up for success while teaching this step.
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Keep Your Hands in the Box
As I walk in this circle, we’re talking about getting him to follow nose; I’ve got my hands in a box. He’s not resisting at all, he’s real soft, and that’s all I want. I might finish him but not peddling with my feet and getting him to quit by giving me his nose.
▶️ Watch the full video lesson.
Come Back to Me
I’ll go back the other way, keep my hands right here inside my box…I want everything we do to come back to me. If I pick up two reins, I want him to respond. If I just change directions and bump him with my outside leg a little bit, I’m teaching him to move.
▶️ Watch the full video lesson.
Using Your Legs
I’m not giving him the full signal to move off my leg because he doesn’t know what that is yet. But I’m going to start teaching him that because he knows to follow his nose right here, so I lay my outside leg on him and bump him around. If he gives me two steps, like he stepped over in the front, that is a tiny victory… the basics of starting small and where we’re headed. When I pull him across I want him to take those steps over.
▶️ Watch the full video lesson.
Keep Your Colt Soft
Whether I’m trotting or walking, I just want him to be soft and follow his nose. I’m getting to the point where I’m doing stuff two-handed, most colts I’m still direct reining. But he’s getting to the point where at a walk I might collect him one or two steps backward. And that’s a stop for me at this point.
▶️ Watch the full video lesson.
Starting to Stop
In the beginning if I get one step like this, I will be happy. He’s getting to where he wants to learn and figure it out. So now if I pull him backward, and he’s not soft, I hold pressure until he gives me one or two steps and then the release comes. You can’t do that right off the bat because you might build resistance with him not knowing you want those steps to come backwards. But now that he knows what I want, I won’t release until he’s soft.
▶️ Watch the full video lesson.
